Elizabeth Valenzuela Smith has a twinkle in her eye when talking about the sport of wrestling.
No matter what part β be it sharing details about her technique on the mat, the time she spends training in her schoolβs wrestling room or watching loads and loads of film β the spark is evident with the 15-year-old Pueblo High School sophomore-to-be.
Itβs also apparent when she talks about following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Orlando, and her dad, Josiah.
Sheβs certainly done that already β not just by taking on the sport, but in becoming a third-generation Pueblo Warrior state champion wrestler.
βWhen I was younger, I was like, βOh, Iβm just going to be a state (champion).β That was my whole goal; I just had to win state,β she said. βThen, coming into Pueblo in August, I was like βOK, Iβm here. Let me just dial in and focus on what Iβve set myself out to do since I was like 8 (years old).β
Winning the Arizona Division I girls wrestling title in the 107-pound weight class in February put Elizabeth in that rare air.
The Smiths are believed to be the first family in Arizona to have three generations of state champions, all from the same school. Orlando Smith got it rolling, winning in 1974 and 1975 (138 pounds), and Josiah Smith, who is also Elizabethβs coach, won in 1998 (145 pounds).
Itβs clear Elizabeth has grown up with the sport; she wouldnβt trade that experience for anything.
βBeing surrounded with (wrestling) my entire life, it did feel natural to just do it all the time. It was just like a given that this is the road Iβd go down.β
The family tree extends from there. Her older brothers, Mozes and Jozeph, also wrestle and have placed at the state championships, while her mom, Leticia Valenzuela Smith, also coaches.
Josiah never thought heβd be coaching. He βjust wanted to be a dad,β who maybe helped out once in a while. But once he started coming to the wrestling room at Pueblo he got hooked on the sport again.
For Elizabeth, being coached by her dad is just about all sheβs known. She admitted that yes, there have been βups and downβ like with any coach-athlete dynamic, but she thinks it has βcreated a strong relationship and a lot of trust.β
Family focus
Elizabeth has been an elite wrestler for quite some time. More recently, her top finishes away from the high school circuit included taking third in the U15 USA Wrestling Pan American Team Trials last August and winning the title at the 16U and Junior Folkstyle Nationals in March.
Sheβs also already earned eight All-America honors.
Elizabeth said that, in a way, she was relieved when she won that first state championship in February.
βMy Tata (Orlando) was excited to see me and my brother compete at state,β she said. βKnowing that I continued the legacy of the whole thing was like βWow! Something new just happened here.ββ
Elizabeth admitted that she felt the pressure to win and continue the tradition, but once she lost her first and only match of the season β she went 34-1 as a freshman β she let go of it all and just wrestled.
Josiah said he just knew his daughter was going to win: βShe looked ready,β he said of the state competition. βShe was confident.β
Meanwhile, Leticia, Elizabethβs mother, sat up in the stands with both sets of grandparents. Leticia said that all the early success βhas kept (Elizabeth) hungry to keep learning and always get better.β
Now that a state title is in hand, that means focusing on more of her development. That includes building toward making a Worlds team and winning a national freestyle title.
Josiah said Elizabeth being a βcerebral wrestlerβ is what makes his daughter stand out.
βSheβs able to think on the mat and sheβs able to make mid-match corrections, which is really hard for some athletes to do,β Josiah said. βShe can do it.β
In addition to her high school team, Elizabeth finds comfort in having her own personal team to lean on. Thatβs especially the case when it comes to her brothers, who she knows always have her back; when sheβs struggling with anything on the mat, they are her first stop for advice.
Despite virtually every member of the family being so intertwined with the sport, the Smiths donβt actually eat/sleep/study/train wrestling day in and day out. (Well, almost β but not quite.)
Academically, Elizabeth is also part of Puebloβs college prep academy track. The program ensures PHS students have the correct coursework and other preparation in place to not only gain acceptance to colleges of varying prestige, but also provides resources for finding scholarships and other tuition assistance, among other features.
Additionally, Josiah said he put the mats away at home and they only talk wrestling in the gym or when one of his children bring it up.
Building her own legacy
As Elizabeth walked into Puebloβs stuffy wrestling room on a recent Monday afternoon, in gray Team USA Nike sweatpants and a light blue long-sleeve top, with her long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, she was reminded of the legacy of not only her family but also all of the Warriors who came before her.
Photos line the walls of Puebloβs wrestling room, commemorating each yearβs teams back to 1959, as well as individual state champions and finishers. The room is so packed with photos that the school is about to add another row of frames.
βI love it,β Elizabeth said. βI think just knowing the history that Pueblo wrestling has β (itβs) the foundation of (where) I am on now. Itβs really cool to know that I am not the first; thereβs always a first somewhere else. I can be like, βOh, well these guys did it, I know I can do it.ββ
Elizabeth Valenzuela Smith may not be the first wrestler at Pueblo or the first to win a state title, but she is the first female state wrestling champion for both Pueblo and first within the Tucson Unified School District.
Girlsβ wrestling is considered one of the nationβs fastest-growing sports. Forty-five states sanction girlsβ wrestling (Louisiana being the latest to add it). According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the number of high school girls who compete in wrestling has quintupled since 2013. From 2022 to 2023 (the most recent year for which data is available from NFHS), girlsβ participation nearly doubled.
The NCAA is capitalizing on the explosion in participation, announcing in February that in the winter of 2026, they expect to move womenβs wrestling from an βemerging sportβ to an official βchampionship sport.β
Tucson has seen this growth up close. Another dominant face of girlsβ wrestling in the city is Audrey Jimenez, a recent grad of Sunnyside High School (part of Sunnyside Unified School District). Jimenez, who will wrestle for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, starting this fall, won three girls state championships and this winter became the first girl to win an Arizona state title in the boys wrestling competition in the 106-pound weight class.
Jimenez is also a six-time national champion who has also competed for Team USA β winning three silver medals at Worlds and one bronze medal. She is an alternate for the U.S. wrestling team for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.
Elizabeth Valenzuela Smith embraces the special place she holds in school history, her family and even girlsβ wrestling and yet, she knows that all those who came before her β like Jimenez and others β have paved the path she is on.
βItβs taken thousands of young women to help me get to where I am today,β she said. βIf one girl didnβt wrestle, I donβt think Iβd be where I am today, which is cool.β
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In honor of 520 Day, here's a list of notable Tucson-area athletes who made an impact in the sports realm this past year.Β
Roman Bravo-Young will represent Mexico β and Tucson β in the 2024 Olympic games in Paris this summer.
Sunnyside senior Audrey JimenezΒ became the first girl to win an Arizona state wrestling title against boys, capturing the Division I title at 106 pounds Saturday in Phoenix.